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Epidendrum...The delicate orchid

Reedstem epidendrums can be grown successfully by following a few guidelines and adapting them to your particular conditions. Obviously, growing outdoors all year round is easy for those living in Southern Florida or Southern California, but not feasible for those in New York. Since the factors of good culture are interdependent, Epidendrum growers will have to experiment to some degree to succeed. The grower's ultimate goal is a fairly compact, robust plant with multiple leads of large heads of flowers.

Fertilizer
If you think there is an abundance of choices of media, just look at the number and brands of fertilizers currently used and marketed. For the hobby grower, we recommend any brand of commercially made fertilizer with a formula approximating 20-10-20. If you are using purified water you will have to provide additional calcium; many people use Cal-Mag fertilizer occasionally to accomplish this objective. By September or October, we greatly reduce the amount of fertilizer to the plants so as to limit cane growth in the winter. The only other thing we do for the epis is to sometimes use monopotassium phosphate (available at better nurseries and garden centers) to control the growth and strengthen the plants.

Temperature
Though most people think of epis as outdoor garden plants able to take near freezing temperatures, the newer breeding line do better with more moderate temperatures. We hold the greenhouse night temperatures to a minimum of 50F. During half of the year it hovers at approximately 60F. Maintaining higher night temperatures will result in lengthening the plant habit somewhat. Many customers in tropical climates such as South Florida and Puerto Rico now grow our plants successfully. We have test-grown some plants outdoors in Santa Barbara down to 40F, under cover, with no apparent damage. Plants that get too much of a chill will show stress by bronzing in the foliage, or even worse, the leaves will appear soft and then drop off. It is remarkable how these plants seem to rebound from this punishment if cut back by half and coddled a bit however it is best to avoid such stress. Though we try to maintain a high of no more than 80F, these plans seem to be extraordinarily durable and have proven to be able to grow well under a wide temperature range.

Pests
Only two pests are commonly associated with reedstem epis. Hard brown scale and aphids. The former can sometimes appear, since - as is the case for many orchids - the flowers exude nectar which attracts ants, which commonly carry scale. Normal observation and response will remedy this problem. During the warm weather flowering season, aphids can quickly become a problem. Fortunately, they are easy enough to see and deal with. Be sure to provide ample air circulation and you may not even have a problem.